2.2. Installation Media

This section will help you determine which different media types you can use to
install Debian. For example, if you have a floppy disk drive on your machine,
it can be used to install Debian. There is a whole chapter devoted media,
Chapter 4, Obtaining System Installation Media, which lists the advantages and
disadvantages of each media type. You may want to refer back to this page once
you reach that section.

2.2.1. CD-ROM/DVD-ROM

Note

Whenever you see “CD-ROM” in this manual, it applies to both
CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, because both technologies are really
the same from the operating system's point of view, except for some very
old nonstandard CD-ROM drives which are neither SCSI nor IDE/ATAPI.

CD-ROM based installation is supported for some architectures.
On machines which support bootable CD-ROMs, you should be able to do a
completely
tape-less
installation. Even if your system doesn't
support booting from a CD-ROM, you can use the CD-ROM in conjunction
with the other techniques to install your system, once you've booted
up by other means; see Chapter 5, Booting the Installation System.

2.2.2. Hard Disk

Booting the installation system directly from a hard disk is another option
for many architectures. This will require some other operating system
to load the installer onto the hard disk.

2.2.3. Network

After the operating system kernel is installed, you can install the
rest of your system via any sort of network connection (including
PPP after installation of the base system), via FTP or HTTP.

2.2.4. Un*x or GNU system

If you are running another Unix-like system, you could use it to install
Debian GNU/Linux without using the debian-installer described in the rest of the
manual. This kind of install may be useful for users with otherwise
unsupported hardware or on hosts which can't afford downtime. If you
are interested in this technique, skip to the Section C.4, “Installing Debian GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System”.

2.2.5. Supported Storage Systems

The Debian boot disks contain a kernel which is built to maximize the
number of systems it runs on. Unfortunately, this makes for a larger
kernel, which includes many drivers that won't be used for your
machine (see Section 8.4, “Compiling a New Kernel” to learn how to
build your own kernel). Support for the widest possible range of
devices is desirable in general, to ensure that Debian can be
installed on the widest array of hardware.

Any storage system supported by the Linux kernel is also supported by
the boot system. This means that FBA and ECKD DASDs are supported with
the old Linux disk layout (ldl) and the new common S/390 disk layout (cdl).